“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12). I think a lot of us have the Golden Rule a little backwards. It’s not just that we should treat others the way we want to be treated because there is a God out there watching, or some mystical Karmic force that is going to magically balance out the scales and reward us when we do in fact treat others the way we want to be treated. Christ isn’t telling us to treat others with compassion because every time we do He’s going to cook up some brownie points for us. He wants us to be examples to others. He wants us to model for others the behaviors that we would like to see them exhibit, so that they can learn from our good example and follow in our footsteps. When we do this, we can be the Golden Ruler, measuring out for others the exact kinds of actions that will be most beneficial not only to ourselves but to everybody else. It is all well and good to do nice things for others just for the sake of being nice, but if we really want to change the lives of others for the better, then we will do good things for other people for the purpose of showing them how and inviting them to be good. When we let our lights shine so that others may see our good works, they will glorify God by doing good works of their own, inspired by the good works we have done.
